Where can I see which subjects are available in DOAB?

How can I see the abstract of the book?

The abstract of the book is not immediately visible. Click on the ‘Abstract’ link.

What is the difference between Subject and Keywords?

The Subjects are part of a list maintained by DOAB. A publisher may also add any number of keywords – in any language. Those keywords are available through
the ‘Keywords’ link.

How can I download the book?

Click on the ‘Free access’ link.

What can I do with the books in DOAB?

All books listed in DOAB are freely accessible and therefore free to read, but this does not mean readers are free to do anything they like with these books. The usage rights of the books in DOAB are determined by the license. Please check the license if you want to re-use the contents of a book. Generally speaking, all books listed in DOAB are free to read and share for non-commercial use.

Where can I download the DOAB metadata?

How can I download the metadata?

At this stage we provide two ways to make our metadata available:

OAI Harvesting

Download of a CSV file

How can I use OAI harvesting?

DOAB supports the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH). Service providers and libraries can use the protocol to harvest the metadata of the
records from DOAB for inclusion in their collections and catalogues.

How can I see which books were added last via OAI harvesting?

Where can I download a comma-separated file?

You can also download the list of records in DOAB in a comma-separated format. Then you can import the file to Excel or another software program for
further use. Use this link: http://www.doabooks.org/doab?func=csv

How can I see which books were added last, using a comma-separated file?

When you download the list of record in a comma separated format (using this link: http://www.doabooks.org/doab?func=csv), import the file to Excel or another software program. Then sort
the data using the column “Added on date”.

Are there any legal restrictions to using metadata records from DOAB in our own library?

There are no restrictions on the use of our metadata: all metadata feeds are available under a CC0 1.0 license. Of course, the rights on the books themselves may vary. This is recorded
in the description of the book.

How are OAPEN en DOAB related?

The OAPEN Library (http://www.oapen.org) and DOAB are both services provided by the OAPEN Foundation. The OAPEN Library
contains full text OA books; DOAB is a discovery service that points to OA books that can be found elsewhere.

What is the difference between OAPEN Library and DOAB?

There are several differences between the OAPEN Library and DOAB:

What is the difference in content of the OAPEN Library and DOAB?

The OAPEN Library contains the full text of peer reviewed OA books; DOAB contains a description of OA books. This means that you can search both the
contents and the description of the books in the OAPEN Library, and you can download the book directly. DOAB enables you to search the description of the
books and enables you to download the books from the site of the publisher.

What is the difference in licenses in the OAPEN Library and DOAB?

The collection in the OAPEN Library contains books that are ‘free to read’ and books that are ‘free to share’. All books in DOAB have a full OA license,
making them ‘free to share’. The books in the OAPEN Library that are only ‘free to read’ are not listed in DOAB.

What is the difference in subject classification in the OAPEN Library and DOAB?

What is the difference in searching the content of the books in the OAPEN Library and DOAB?

The OAPEN Library contains the description and full text of the books; DOAB contains descriptions of books. That is the reason you can search the complete
contents of the books in the OAPEN Library. That is not possible in DOAB.

Why are some books in the OAPEN Library not available through DOAB?

All books in DOAB have a full OA license, making them ‘free to share’. The collection in the OAPEN Library contains books that are ‘free to read’ and books
that are ‘free to share’. The books in the OAPEN Library that are only ‘free to read’ are not listed in DOAB.

You can also trust publishers that are a member of OASPA (http://oaspa.org/membership/members/), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association. OAPEN Foundation is a member of OASPA and works closely with OASPA to establish membership guidelines for OA book publishers. It is useful to check these guidelines if you are considering to submit a manuscript with a publisher you don’t know.

An OA book publisher contacted me and asked me to submit a chapter for a book. How would I rate this publisher or determine if they are a high impact
publisher?

Generally speaking a request for a chapter should come from a colleague- a scholar or scientist acting as editor for the publication. You should be able to
check the credentials of this person or even better, already know this person. If this is not the case, then you should be cautious. There are all sort of
unprofessional publishers acting under the guise of academic OA publishing, usually looking for an author publication fee. They might publish books, but
they don’t add value to scholarly communication in the way professional publishers should do. These publishers have been called ‘predatory publishers’.
More about them here:
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/03/06/predatory-open-access-publishers-the-natural-extreme-of-an-author-pays-model/

Is there a list of ‘predatory’ Open Access Publishers?

Can I list my book in DOAB?

Books in DOAB are submitted by publishers only. The reason is that we need to verify that books have undergone independent and external peer review prior to publication, and are made available under an Open Access license.

If you are the author of a book that falls within the criteria of DOAB, we suggest you contact your publisher to apply
here.

If the publisher is already listed in DOAB, send us the details of your book using the contact form, and we’ll be happy to contact the publisher ourselves.